Sister Nadira Tupuola Email #23

by JayLynnE - February 12, 2018

This week was so fun! Sister Kitchen and I were able to see many miracles!!

NEW INVESTIGATOR!

We met Jimmy on our way to a less active members home. He was standing outside his apartment smoking. He is a member of the Nazarine church but grew up Catholic. He is in his 50's. We asked him if he would be interested in learning about what we believed in. He hesitated at first but then said yes! We set up a time to meet him.

We had our first lesson with him on Thursday at his home. We brought our Ward Mission Leader and his wife (Brother and Sister Sharp) with us to meet him and we had an awesome lesson. He told us that he was skeptical about meeting with us but that he was glad he did because he got a lot of his questions answered. He had many questions about Joseph Smith. He grew up being taught that Joseph Smith was hallucinating when he had his first vision because he did mushrooms. LOL

We were able to clarify his concerns about Mormons. He thought that we are forced to go on missions. And that we are not allowed to have Facebook. He had pictures of his son who passed away on his wall and asked us if it was okay to have pictures of him on his wall. haha it was so funny! Like who do you think we are?? But we were able to teach about how God loves all of us and he wants us to be happy. He has given us families and prophets to help us be happy. He found it fascinating that we believe there is a living prophet today. We also taught about the Great Apostasy which led to many different churches being formed after the death of Jesus Christ. And then we taught about Joseph Smith restoring Christ's gospel and church back on the earth. We invited Jimmy to come to church with us and to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. And he did!! He came with us to church (all 3 hours) and he said he read the first chapter of 1 Nephi!! He is so awesome and we are excited to continue teaching him! I know that the Lord prepared him and put him in our path!

Yesslith

Elliot and Lavinia Yesslith are a Native American couple in the 50's who live out on the Reservation. Lavinia is Paiute and Elliot is half Shoshone/half Navajo. They don;t have any kids. They have been members of the church all of their life. But are less active and come to sacrament meeting every once in a while. Their goal is to be sealed in temple. The Vaa'ivaka's invited us and the Yesslith's to their home for dinner. It was a buffet!! Sister Vaa'ivaka loves to cook! We had ribs, fried chicken, hamburgers, casserole, banana bread and pani po po! Brother Yesslith was in heaven! haha The Yesslith's invited us to a Pow Wow that will be in the Summer. Its a Native American Festival and it looks so fun! They showed us videos of the dances they do at the Pow Wow. I want to go so bad! haha but we had a good time!

Exchanges!

We went on exchanges this week! Which means we switch companions for a day. I had the opportunity to go to the Fallon Spanish Branch with my Sister Training Leader, Hermana Servin from Mexico! I had a blast trying to learn Spanish! We had dinner with Carmela and Nacho. Carmela is from Peru and Nacho is from Puerto Rico. They don't speak english. They made Cau Cau which is a Peruvian dish Which basically means, Cow stomach. Its a long process to make because you need to clean out the cows stomach so its edible. But it was sooo good! After we ate, we sang, "I Believe in Christ" in Spanish. I had no idea what they were saying but it was so cool to experience.

Mariaelena Ugalde

Mariaelena is a Recent Convert who speaks a little bit of english. She is so funny even though I have no idea what she was saying. But we had a lesson with her and We taught the importance of going to church. I was able to teach and bare testimony in the lesson while Hermana Servin translated! haha but you better watch out because I will be coming back speaking Spanish! All those times listening to Selena is paying off! Como la flooorrr haha just kidding.

Becca!

We had two lessons with Becca Mcknight this week! She is a New Investiagor who we started teaching last week! She is so ready to be baptized! But she wants to make sure she understands everything. She loves meeting with us and loves learning about the gospel! We taught her the Plan of Salvation this week! She is going through a lot of hard times right now in her life. which I believe has prepared her to hear the gospel! But she is awesome! And I look forward to teaching her more!!